ABC
on Friday did its best to find secret discrimination against Muslims,
sending Good Morning America's Bianna Golodryga undercover in a hijab
(Islamic head covering). Yet, despite the misleading graphic, "Life Under the Veil: TV Experiment Exposes Bias," the morning show didn't find much bigotry.

Late
in the segment, Golodryga admitted, "Overt discrimination is the
exception." When an ABC producer tried the experiment in New York, the
correspondent acknowledged, "Everywhere, people went out of their way to
be friendly." [MP3 audio here.]

Yet,
Golodryga kept trying. Going to the red state of Texas, she explained,
"But it was different in my hometown of Houston. At the airport, I could
feel all the eyes on me."

Wearing
a burka, she narrated, "In a nearby mall, I wanted to see what would
happen if I wear wore a more striking version of Islamic dress, which
covers everything but the eyes and is less common here in the states.
The stares increased."

If something is uncommon, wouldn't it be likely that stares increase?

After
a man walked by and offered a muffled comment, Golodryga deciphered,
"It sounds like he said, 'Islamic queen.' I couldn't tell if he meant it
in a friendly way or not."

To build the case for rampant
anti-Muslim sentiment in America, Golodryga asserted, "According to the
FBI, hate crime incidences against Muslims soared from 28 in 2000, to
481 in 2001. And still remain well above pre-9/11 levels."

However, as Michael Doyle of the Sacramento Bee reported on August 28, 2010, hate crimes against Muslims are rare and occur less often than violence against Jews and gays:

Jews,
lesbians, gay men and Caucasians, among others, are all more frequently
the target of hate crimes, FBI records show. Reported anti-Muslim
crimes have declined over recent years, though they still exceed what
occurred prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. [...]

In 2008, 105
hate crime incidents against Muslims were reported nationwide. There
were 10 times as many incidents that were recorded as anti-Jewish during
the same year, the most recent for which figures are available.

But, Good Morning America has yet to do a segment featuring
someone wearing a yarmulke or Kippah to see if they suffer anti-Semitic
bias.

Golodryga concluded by marveling of her undercover
experience on the subway: "People didn't even pay attention to me as I
walked around like a normal American. My religion didn't matter."

One might wonder, then, what was the point of this segment on bigotry and "bias"?

A transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:18am EDT, follows:

ABC GRAPHIC: Life Under the Veil: TV Experiment Exposes Bias

GEORGE
STEPHANOPOULOS: In the final part of our special series, "Islam in
America," we look at what it's like to be Muslim in America today.
Bianna Golodryga went undercover to find out how people respond to women
wearing the traditional Muslim head scarf. And she joins us now. And
this was definitely a first for you.

BIANNA
GOLODRYGA: Yeah. It was quite an eye-opening experience, George. Good
morning. The Council of American-Islamic Relations has noted a spike in
hostility toward Muslims, including bomb threats at mosques, physical
threats on Muslims. Even an advertising campaign telling Muslims to
change their religion. So, I wanted to find out what it felt like to be a
Muslim in America. And I talked to American women who are doing just
that. I donned the hijab myself.

AYESHA BUTT: I think the hijab,
is one thing that makes it a little different. Makes a Muslim woman
different from a non-Muslim woman.

GOLODRYGA: A hijab is a head
scarf that women wear in public, a symbol of their faith visible to all.
Do you notice people looking at you?

RUGIATU CONTEN: I'm randomly
checked. At a specific airport, I just stand aside because I know I'm
going to get randomly checked. And then when I go in the room, I see
five other Muslim women, I say As-Salamu Alaykum and do the, you
regular, you know, procedures.

BUTT: Definitely, things changed a
lot after 9/11. Before 9/11, you weren't called a terrorist. It was
after 9/11 that people stop to let you know that you were a terrorist.
Or they called you, like, Osama's wife or something like that. And then,
recently, things I would say have been very similarly hostile.

GOLODRYGA:
According to the FBI, hate crime incidences against Muslims soared from
28 in 2000, to 481 in 2001. And still remain well above pre-9/11
levels. The most recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission figures
showed complaints of workplace discrimination against Muslims are up 20
percent. So, what would happen if your daughter came home and said she
wanted to wear a hijab?

RUBINA AHMAD: As a mother, as long as
she stayed in big cities and cosmopolitan- where people are more
tolerant, people are more knowledgeable of different cultures,
religions, I would be fine. But, I would be concerned about her safety.

GOLODRYGA:
I decided to see what it would be like to wear a hijab in lower
Manhattan, not too far from the proposed community center and mosque.
Our hidden cameras followed me into a swanky restaurant. And a
department store. And on to the subway, where New Yorkers took the hijab
in stride. [Video footage of Golodryga walking around.]But
it was different in my hometown of Houston. At the airport, I could
feel all the eyes on me. And our cameraman overheard one man tell his
companion that he hoped I wasn't on his flight. In a nearby mall, I
wanted to see what would happen if I wear wore a more striking version
of Islamic dress, which covers everything but the eyes and is less
common here in the states. The stares increased. And so did the
comments. [Muffled comment from passerby.] It sounds like he said,
"Islamic queen." I couldn't tell if he meant it in a friendly way or
not. Finally, we went to Orleans County in western New York, where five
teens were arrested after allegedly harassing Muslims outside this
mosque. Our producer went to a gas station, supermarket and hardware
store. Everywhere, people went out of their way to be friendly.

BUTT:
There are a few that will be hostile. You know, whether you're in the
grocery store or driving on the highway, someone's going to cut you off
and say something about being a terrorist. There are those rare, few
people out there. But I don't think the majority is like that.

GOLODRYGA:
Today, many young Muslim-American women embrace the hijab, rejecting
the notion that traditional dress is somehow repressive.

AHMAD:
It's part of their Muslim identity. They are true American-Muslims. And
they exercise their right as an American-Muslim and they decide to wear
it.

CONTEN: Now, I'm wearing the hijab. And I realize that people
see me for who I am, more than what my hair looks like or what I'm
wearing or how pretty I am. Definitely, that's the plus-side. And also,
the sisterhood, like Aysha to talk about.

BUTT: Nobody forced me to do it. I we were the cool people. Like-

GOLODRYGA: So, it's cool to wear a hijab?

BUTT:
Oh, it's awesome! Like, you know, You had the matching hoodies. You had
the matching hijab. Like, you can see my little toy here. [Points to
her hijab.] You can play around with it.

GOLODRYGA: Accessorize it up.

BUTT: Like, you can have a lot of fun with it.

CONTEN: Hijabs, they are very wild. But people just don't see it. At our parties-

BUTT: Yeah, it's kind of special.

CONTEN: Yeah.

GOLODRYGA: Some believe this generation is paving the way forward for all Americans.

AHMAD:
They are really helping, not only Muslim girls. But they're also
helping Americans to learn about Islam. And making other people see them
the way they are. You know, as part of maturity of a nation. They have
educated the masses of the nation.

GOLODRYGA: Quite an impressive group of women. Many
Americans see the hijab as something that restricts women, hiding their
individuality. What these women told me is that when they wear the
hijab, they feel liberated. It frees them from some of the pressures
they feel. And, actually one of the girls, Ayesha, that you saw
talking about stylizing her hijab, she said she conducted an experiment
when I told them about what we did. And she went out without the hijab,
in American, western clothes. And she wore that for a week. And she felt
more liberated as a woman wearing the hijab. Because people talk to her
as a woman and they didn't- in a sexual sort of-

STEPHANOPOULOS:
Oh, that's interesting. Just fascinating stuff. And I guess it confirms
something that I've believed. Americans tend to show greater respect
for anyone who seems to be taking their faith seriously.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. Especially
here in New York. You saw that on the subway, right? People didn't even
pay attention to me as I walked around like a normal American. My
religion didn't matter.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Not at all.

-Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.

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